Burton Dassett Platform

The first station at Burton Dassett, just over three miles
from Kineton station, was called Warwick Road and opened with the line
on 1st June 1871. The station was on the Fenny Compton side of the road bridge
which carried the Warwick to Banbury road over the railway. The lack of
available business in the locality, both for passengers and goods, meant the
station lasted only for a very short time, closing during June 1873. Dick Riley
and Bill Simpson state in their book on the line 'In March 1885 a public siding
was opened by the E&WJR on the other side of the road bridge called
North End Siding, after the nearby village. About this time some
ironstone was being loaded there from the Dassett Hills with an aerial ropeway
going from the sidings up into the hills, the ropeway being powered by a
portable steam engine. The sidings and this aerial ropeway were on the same
side of the running the line as the Edge Hill Quarry built a few years later
(see 'smjbd195') but were separated by the road
which crossed the railway. Eric Tonks states the working agreement for this
siding was with a company called Attenborough & Company. Unfortunately, the
ironstone workings were soon uneconomical and closed down sometime in the late
1880s. All plant, buildings and rails became the property of the railway. A few
years later the workings were reopened with much more substantial equipment:
larger derricks and buckets with a permanent steam engine'. However, the 1894
edition of The Railway Clearing House's Handbook of Railway Stations
records that North End was only able to provide a passenger (P) service.
The 1929 edition of the Railway Clearing House's 1929 Handbook of Railway
Stations records the name 'Burton Dassett' but with no services offered in
any category. As would be expected, there is no reference to North End
in this edition.

According to Arthur Jordan in his book on the line, a ground
frame, 'Burton Hill' was brought into use during August 1898 controlling
several sidings but the 'public siding was not opened until December 1909'.
However. JM Dunn in his book on the line notes that the name change to Burton
Dassett Platform occurred circa 1900. The 1904 Ordnance
Survey Map shows no name on the map Both authors indicated in their books
that an unadvertised workman's service called here although only JM Dunn
provides a date, 1st December 1909. This date is the same as the official
opening of the goods facilities (see 'smjbd189').
Two sidings with ground frame and a weighbridge were installed on 1st December
1909. They were used by the Willingworth Iron Company and unlocked by the key
on the train staff. Traffic became sufficient to warrant a goods porter to be
stationed there. Also a lot of coal came in presumably for the steam engine and
other uses on the Edge Hill Quarry site. The site was again to cease production
until 1918 when with belated war demand it was reopened by T & I Bradley
who also supported construction of the Edge Hill site close by. Like the Edge
Hill operation it was to fade out of production about 1925. With the opening of
the Marlborough Farm War Department Depot it became designated a station and
therefore a platform and an office was constructed but it was not recorded in
any public timetables.

The opening of the Edge Hill Light Railway in 1922 with its
adjacent junction provided a brief development but it fell victim to the
post-First World War economic down turn and closed in 1925 with the office
books recording the last load leaving on 27th January 1925. The Second World
War saw a government depot established in 1939 and it was used for troop
movements. The public siding was finally closed on 11th November 1963. A
special treat for Sunday School children at Stratford upon Avon was a day out
in the Dassett Hills by special train, using this platform. In January 1940 LMS
4-6-0 'Black Five' No 4840 was seen working at the sidings but by 1947 it was
found to be unoccupied and derelict. This part of the line withstood complete
closure up until the present day (2017) with the acquisition of a section of it
from Fenny Compton for 3½ miles to Kineton Central Ammunition Depot. The
depot itself has an extensive railway system of 76 miles of track. This section
of line being part of Kineton Ministry of Defence railway means that it is also
a severely restricted area and must be avoided, unless proper authorisation can
be obtained to visit.

Much of the information provided on this and other linked
pages has been derived from books written by: Arthur Jordan The Stratford
upon Avon and Midland Junction Railway published by OPC; JM Dunn's The
Stratford upon Avon & Midland Junction Railway published by The Oakwood
Press; RC Riley and Bill Simpson A History of the Stratford-Upon-Avon and
Midland Junction Railway published by Lamplight Publications; and finally,
Eric Tonks 'The Ironstone Quarries of the Midlands: History, Operation and
Railways' published by Runpast Publications. We would like to express our
thanks to the members of the SMJ Society (www.smj.me) for use of their
information and images, in particular the late John Jennings whose contribution
can be seen on many of our SMJ pages.